


Being Sick

by Malteser24



Series: Mundane Things [1]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec Is Sick, Caring, Common Cold, M/M, Magnus Looks After Him, Nurse Magnus, Romance, care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 12:17:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4960303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malteser24/pseuds/Malteser24
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec has come down with an unfortunate cold, and Magnus makes it his goal to help him feel even a little bit better.</p>
<p>So he of course enlists Catarina's help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Being Sick

**Author's Note:**

> Absolutely cheesy and clichéd. It's ridiculous.

Shadowhunters have runes for pretty much everything - strength and sight, stamina and agility, enhanced angelic abilities and healing. But unfortunately, the great Nephilim race are yet to find a rune to aid general sickness.

Even the mundanes have medicine to help with the common cold.

And warlock's...well, magic can fix a lot of things, but healing spells only seem to make the illness worse.

So, of course, it's really just Alec's luck that he manages to get sick in the weeks leading up to December.

* * *

 

When Alec wakes up - with a throat dry enough to rival the Sahara Desert and full of enough razors to stock a baber shop for a year, not to mention the entire marching band ensemble in his head banging against his skull - he honestly believes he's either dead, or has been cursed by some low-life demon scum.

He rolls over, seeking the comfort of Magnus' smooth chest, but the movement takes an hour and his limbs feel heavy and sluggish.

"Alec?" Magnus says, and Alec simply groans in response.

"Alec, darling, are you okay? You feel incredibly warm..."

Alec whines, and if he was feeling even minutely comprehensible he'd be feeling incredibly embarrassed, but he's a little too preoccupied feeling like he's slowly dying.

"Am...I dead?" He croaks, the words quite literally burning a trail of fire in his throat.

"I don't think so." Magnus replies. He sits up, and gently pulls Alec up too, concerned etched in the furrow of his eyebrows and the tightness of his mouth.

"Tell me how you're feeling?" He requests.

"There's a bunch of little people using my skull as an instrument." Alec groans. "My throat feels like it's being scratched with cat claws every time I swallow, and my veins are flooded with cement."

Magnus hums sympathetically, wiping the back of his hand across Alec's forehead. It was burning to the touch, but it didn't seem that way, from the way Alec was rubbing his forearms.

"Do you feel cold?" Magnus asks, just to be certain.

"I'd really like to bury myself under these covers with a portable heater, and I'm seriously considering a new occupation as a human burrito, if that's what you mean." Alec answers, and Magnus is glad to find Alec's sass is still in tact.

He'd be really worried if it wasn't.

"Yes, that is exactly what I mean. I think you might have a fever. You most certainly have at the least a cold, though."

"Cold?" Alec echoes. "Isn't that a mundane illness?"

"Usually." Magnus answers, stroking Alec's clammy cheek. "Some Shadowhunters have been known to get ill - sometimes with a cold or the flu - but it's rare. Your immune systems are a lot stronger than ordinary humans, however with all the demon-hunting and such you've been doing...luckily for you, I have known humans - not  _all_ of them mundanes - who have suffered from colds, so I know  _just_ what to do."

He kisses the top of Alec's head gently, pushing back the sigh that threatens to escape when Alec groans as he heads to the kitchen.

Magnus flicks the kettle on, and whilst waiting for it to boil, magics a plethora of assorted medicinal liquids and tablets, and a few extra goods to help Alec feel better.

Hopefully.

Magnus himself has never been struck with a simple cold before - he was around Etta when she had a bout of the flu, but she had handled it all herself - however, he  _has_ been cursed by an angry ex, and that hadn't been very pleasant.

He returns to the bedroom for a second, with the intentions of making sure Alec was okay, that he hadn't passed out or hurt himself. Instead, he found Alec attempting to get up, legs swung over the side of the bed, his bare back hunched and his head in one hand, the bedsheets clenched in the other.

"Alexander?" Magnus calls, and although Alec doesn't turn, his head lifts up an inch or so at the sound, and Magnus thinks he moans, but he can't be certain.

"Alec, sweetheart, what are you doing?"

"I'm...I'm getting... _up_."

"No. No, no, no, no you're not. That's a horrible idea, why were you trying to get up?" Magnus is too concerned to register that Alec  _is_ a Shadowhunter, and  _does_ know what is too much for him to handle.

"I...don't want...to stay in bed...all day. I - I want to...to spend time, with you." Alec croaks out, wincing as the words scratch his throat.

"Oh, Alexander." Magnus replies fondly, rubbing Alec's back soothingly.

"Let me help you, we'll set you up on the couch, where at least I know that if you fall, you won't hurt yourself too badly. But, please, just let me help you, honey. That's part of what I'm here for, after all, it's in the 'boyfriend' job description." Magnus pleads.

Alec nods slowly, and he doesn't protest when Magnus wraps an arm around his waist to help him stand up. Alec is pliant while Magnus leads him to the couch, and he doesn't say anything when Magnus orders him to stay.

The kettle has boiled, and Magnus allows himself to properly think about what he's going to do. It only takes him a second, to realise he actually has  _absolutely no idea w_ hat he's doing.

* * *

 

_"Magnus, I have actual patients to save. What on earth is your enormously important emergency this time?"_

"Alexander is sick, Catarina, he has - a cold or something - and I have some medicine but I think he might have a fever, and I just...I don't know what to do, Cat. I  _really_ need your help."

Magnus must sound even more desperate than he thought, because only a second alter Catarina sighs.

_"Tell me exactly what his symptoms are."_

* * *

 

Ten minutes later, Magnus has detailed instructions on how to help Alec feel, and hopefully  _get_ , better.

He also has detailed instructions on what Catarina wants as payment for her services. She is a smart woman, and Magnus has never loved her more, or been more proud.

Alec's been relatively silent since Magnus left, but Magnus had simply assumed that he was feeling too bad to bother with making much noise. He should have guessed, rightfully, that Alec had fallen asleep - but strangely, the thought hadn't occured.

"Alec, I have some medicine that Catarina claims will make you feel better, and it smells quite horrible, so I'm rather inclined to believe her. But I also have some nice, soothing tea, which should help with your sore throat -"

Alec's not quite asleep, when Magnus walks in, but his eyelids are drooped and slumber appears to be not so far away.

"Alexander?" Magnus calls out softly, placing his bundle down gently so as not to disturb Alec in case he truly is asleep.

"Huh?"

Alec's eyes flutter open, but his cerulean eyes are foggy and glazed, and Magnus isn't sure whether he's truly coherent.

"Alexander, honey, if you want to sleep - "

"I wasn't... _sleeping!_ " Alec snaps - although it's soft-spoken and quiet, and there's hardly enough malice to affect even Chairman Meow.

"Of course you weren't." Magnus quips, a little sarcastically.

Alec pouts, and Magnus leans down to kiss it away.

"You're going...to get  _sick_." Alec protests.

"I'm a warlock, darling, I'm exempt from such illnesses."

Alec still looks unsure, so Magnus pushes his raven hair back, and kisses his damp forehead instead. Alec exhales delicately, and Magnus smiles fondly.

"How about, you take your medicine and we can watch something, a movie perhaps? If anyone calls we can simply ignore them - it's about time we had a lazy day to ourselves, we're very much overdue for it." He declares.

Alec nods, and Magnus enters his  _'nurse persona'_  - after first kissing Alec's nose, of course.

* * *

 

Alec takes his medicine dutifully, albeit wincing as the  _"disgusting"_ and  _"foul"_ liquid slides down his throat.

(Magnus tells him to hush and do as he's told.)

As a reward, and because he really  _does_ feel awful for Alec, Magnus gives him more chocolate and soft kisses than he probably needs, and - because Alec's fever seems to have fluctuated into the complete opposite end - Magnus makes him some more tea, and magics a blanket from who-knows-where to cover Alec.

(Who, in all fairness, doesn't pause to wonder where Magnus got the blanket from, or to chastise him for stealing, on account of how poorly he's feeling.)

Magnus flicks his hand, and the TV turns on, showcasing the opening scenes of  _The Princess And The Frog_  - a personal favourite for them both. He checks with Alec to see if there is anything he needs,  _"just you"_ , and lights the newly-installed fireplace - with magic, of course.

"Are you feeling any better?" Magnus asks as he settles onto the couch, opening his arm for Alec to snuggle in. To his slight surprise, Alec tugs the blanket tightly around himself, wiggles a little down the couch and settles with his head on Magnus' lap.

"Are you okay?" Magnus asks quietly.

"I'm...comfy." Alec replies, and it's enough for Magnus.

Alec falls asleep before Tiana kisses frog-Prince Naveen, but Magnus doesn't move. He spends the next two hours or so, running his fingers through Alec's hair, keeping an eye and an ear on him, just in case.

He also thinks that he's falling even more impossibly in love with his Shadowhunter.

* * *

 

When Catarina arrives during her alloted break, she finds the both of them fast asleep and snoring lightly, Chairman Meow tucked between Alec's legs and the couch, credits rolling on the screen in front of them.

Catarina, in an act as rare and beautiful as the blue moon, smiles fondly and sighs - allowing herslef the simple pleasure of reminiscing what it feels like to be in love, to be so utterly smitten, others were faintly repulsed, a feeling she herself hadn't felt since her long-term fiance died, many decades ago.

"You both seem to be doing very well." She whispers, because she doesn't wish to wake them. Her words are like a double-edged sword; Catarina cannot quite remember a time where Magnus looked so at peace, or so beautifully enamoured.

"Next time, Magnus, don't wast my time." She jokes.

On the couch, not completely asleep but rather drifting between states of consciousness, Alec smiles fondly. Magnus just hums, and squeezes the hand that is holding Alec's gently.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Fact: I wrote this when I was sick, and then when I edited it I was sick again. Stupid weather.


End file.
